Pointers refer the memory location of a variable using a reference operator. The reference operator is the "&" symbol, which means the "address of".

Pointers can be used to directly access the value stored in the variable using the "*" operator known as a "dereference operator".Another dereference operator is "->", which dereferences to a structure or union.

#include <iostream.h>
int main ()
  {
     int value;
     int * ptr;
     ptr = &value;
    *ptr = 12;
     cout << "The value is:: " << value << endl;
     return 0;
  }

    The value is:: 12

In the above example an integer "value" and a pointer "ptr" is declared first. The address of the variable "value" is pointed by the "ptr". Now the values of the "ptr" is assigned to 12.